I've read a lot of the answers about crushing pills but I had another question or two. I take about 35 perscription medications each week and a lot of the bottles say do not crush or chew. On the bottles that do not say that, is it safe to crush those up and mix them with food? A lot of the pills just dissolve on my tongue and taste horrible. I also have sudden severe headaches and a lot of the time my vicodin or tylenol3 takes forever to work. I wondered if crushing those would increase the speed that my system metabolizes those pills. I know there's a danger when crushing any pill that you'll receive too much of the dose at once (especially with time release pills like ambien or lunesta) but is it something that will cause serious health issues or just something to be wary of and only do occasionally?
2007-07-17 20:33:04 · 4 answers · asked by {5x5}Fallen 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
call your RX
2007-07-17 20:36:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't ever crush time release pills or controlled release pills, those are the only pills you can't crush though, ever other ones will be fine and no, it won't speed up the metabolizim rate, and if it did it would only be by a mere 5 minutes max. If you crush time or controlled release pills it would only give you too much medicine at once, it will exceed the therapeutic dose in the allowed time slot and could seriously hurt you. Such as overdose you and cause organ failure, nausea, vomiting, abd cramps, unconsciousness, heat palpitations, heart failure and even death, so in my opinion why take the risk right? Well, hope this helps! If you have anymore questions feel free to e-mail me at supermankangaroo@yahoo.com
2007-07-19 19:44:05 · answer #2 · answered by Chris S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Where the tablet is coated so that the medicine is released either gradually or only in the stomach, the tablet should not be crushed or chewed. The medicine may be corrosive to the esophagus or the tongue itself.
Where it is not expressly forbidden, crushing may be OK, but it is generally intended to be swallowed whole.
If you want a medicine to work really fast, think of dissolving it in a little water and gulp the liquid down. Discuss with your doctor or pharmacist whether a particular medicine can be dissolved in water, tea, coffee or fruit juice etc.
2007-07-17 20:39:59 · answer #3 · answered by Swamy 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
dont crush. just swallow.
2007-07-17 21:50:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋